National statistics

Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2013/14 estimates

Final estimates of total overpayments and underpayments across the benefit system in financial year 2013/14.

From:
Department for Work and Pensions
Published
6 November 2014
Last updated
17 November 2014 — See all updates

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Documents

Fraud and error in the benefit system: final 2013/14 estimates first release

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78425-385-1

PDF, 1.37 MB, 19 pages

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Supplementary tables: Fraud and error in the benefit system, final 2013/14 estimates

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 439 KB

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Supplementary charts: Fraud and error in the benefit system, final 2013/14 estimates

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 5.43 MB

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Fraud and error in the benefit system: background information and methodology

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78425-387-5

PDF, 697 KB, 41 pages

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Infographic: Fraud and error in the benefit system, final 2013/14 estimates

PDF, 113 KB, 1 page

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Info-bites (infographics): Fraud and error in the benefit system, final 2013/14 estimates

PDF, 440 KB, 3 pages

Details

This report estimates fraud and error levels in the benefit system in Great Britain for the financial year 2013/14. The main points from the report are:

  • 2.1% of total benefit expenditure was overpaid due to fraud and error
  • the estimated value of overpayments is £3.4 billion (a fall from the 2012/13 estimated value of £3.5 billion)
  • 0.9% of total benefit expenditure was underpaid due to fraud and error (the same as the 2012/13 estimate)
  • the estimated value of underpayments is £1.5 billion, (a fall from the 2012/13 estimated value of £1.6 billion)

As part of this release, we’ve also published an updated version of Fraud and error in Housing Benefit: technical appendix on the supporting documents page.

Next release: May 2015.

More information

The final estimates on this page replace the archived preliminary 2013/2014 estimates published in May 2014.

Send any comments or questions about our fraud and error estimates to caxtonhouse.femaenquiries@dwp.gov.uk

Published 6 November 2014
Last updated 17 November 2014 + show all updates

  1. Amended the 'Earnings' and 'Housing-related' amounts in the Infographic: Fraud and error in the benefit system, final 2013 to 2014 estimates.

  2. Published additional 'infobites' infographics.

  3. First published.

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